The Horse and the beginning of My Friend featured Trey on acoustic guitar. I Didn't Know featured Fish on the Madonna washboard. Suzy included a Stairway to Heaven tease from Trey. My Friend contained a Killer Joe (Benny Golson) tease from Page near the end of the song. YEM contained Groove is in the Heart teases and the vocal jam ended with references to "Mr. Cookie Head," who was a fan out in the audience dressed in a cookie costume. Big Ball Jam contained an Auld Lang Syne tease from Trey. During the band introductions in Love You, Fish introduced Brad Sands, prompting a "Charge!" tease from Page, and "Cookie Man", leading to a HYHU tease. New York New York was teased after Page's introduction. Fish quoted Iron Man in his Love You vacuum solo. Love You subsequently contained a Sound of Music tease from Page and Mike. Possum had a Simpsons signal.

Show Reviews

Wow! What a difference a few days off makes. The 47th show of the tour brings us to the Midwest for their first show at the State Theatre and it's a good one. It has very relaxed and crisp playing for the most part. And speaking of crisp, the recording of this one is great! You can even hear some on stage call outs and antics. Since there are other great reviews, I can be brief.

From the very top the boys sound ready to go rock the house. Chalk through the Horse is great, no problems at all. Silent is much improved, but Trey has some tiny off spots. Maze is great; IDK had a little monitor feedback dialing in the washboard? Ice was too fast, so Trey struggled a little and the middle came to a dead stop again. Divided had a spotty middle section, but not too bad, it still rocked. Good, solid Cavern to close up this exceptional set. Very nice!

It's fun that you can hear Trey screaming with excitement as they are getting into a good Buried Alive opener. Suzy is very playful and relaxed sounding. ATR was pretty good; Llama was also a screamer by the end. You can almost hear stage chuckling going on in the intro to Mound. Page and Mike excelled during the song even though it was also a little too fast. My Friend had some spots from Mike in the intro, but the song was pretty good and the end seemed to decay into Dog Log almost. YEM is great! Well done all the way through, except for the very first notes it seems Trey's volume is down. My Sweet One has an oops in the bridge, but they recover nicely and the fun, fast rhythm continues when the Balls come out. And then HYHU brings Fish back out for a Love You, complete with band intros. Possum is by request and Trey actually drops the F bomb and says; "You talked me into it." Possum itself rocked overall and was a nice way to end this stellar show.

Adeline was missing from the recording I heard. I'm sure it was fine. And I wonder if Golgi was slated to be the original closer instead of the encore? Anyway, this one was good, tight and rocking.

Very well done tonight. They seemed to have a certain swagger going on that really propelled this show to new heights. There are just a few minor things that keep this one from getting its fifth star. It's about two more weeks before I got to witness this myself in Cleveland!

The first set is mostly average, and a little shaky in spots, namely Stash and SITM. Trey is also pretty out of tune during the start of Divided Sky, but he tunes up when they hit the quiet section, and then this Divided Sky flexes its muscles a bit. The second set is where this one picks up its game. I first have to mention that, during Suzy, one of the guys "sings" the flourish that is played when they do it with horns, which I loved because I often do the same thing when listening to Suzy (a tune that I think is so much more fun with horns). I also have to commend them on a solid rendition of All Thing Reconsidered, a difficult tune to execute. This is followed by a totally cracked-out Llama, and though Mound is a bit shaky, My Friend My Friend features an unusual ending with kind of a bluesy-swing backing from Page and a bunch of vocal shenanigans. This sets the stage for an excellent YEM that includes a full-on silent jam, a Groove is in the Heart B&D segment, and a vocal jam that blends beautiful harmonies with YEM wackiness and a salute to Mr. Cookie Head. Outstanding! What else? How about a nutty MSO back to back with its intro-doppelganger BBJ (including Auld Lang Syne tease, no less) and an always fun Love You with band introductions (including, "on stage left, for no reason at all, Mr. Bradley Sands" and a vacuum-aided Iron Man quote). I mean, what else do you want? A Possum? Trey?

"Oh, fuckin' A. You talked me into it."

Well, that ought to hold ya. A solid, groovy, wacky, fun second set that puts this easily at 4 stars, IMHO.

A little lyric flub from Trey at the beginning of Chalk Dust, but other than that it's a fairly solid Chalk Dust opener. Sparkle didn't quite get up to the tempo I like, I think mainly because Fish almost lost it at the accelerando. Guelah was good; the interplay between Trey and Page was pretty much spot on - I've heard better but I've heard a lot worse too. The Stash is pretty standard, but clean. Horse> Silent is nothing special as well, Silent isn't quite as clean on Trey's part - he kind of seems to struggle to keep his part going during the beginning and the "soaring" section (as I refer to it, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about) is a little rough at times. Maze RAGES, as usual, but again, nothing too special here; although I will say Trey and Page seem to be having a lot of fun with the "You'll never get out of this maze" at the end. Fish lays down a nice washboard solo in I Didn't Know and there are a few surprises in the "Pardon me Doug" at the end, which I REALLY liked. This is actually the first thing in this show that sticks out. Right onto It's Ice and this show starts to make sense. I've always loved this song and this one does not disappoint. Page does something a little strange in the beginning of Divided Sky, but I'll go with it. The rest of this is pretty good, but Trey gets a little flubby mid-way through the solo and a little towards the end, though nothing too terrible. A decent Cavern wraps up the first set.

Buried Alive> Suzy and this set is off to a rockin' start. The Mad Scientist lays down a real heady solo in Suzy, followed by some f***ing highlarious vocal antics from the Fish man (see what I did there?) All Things Reconsidered. LLAMA RAGE. They're really letting go now. Mound isn't entirely clean, but a good one nonetheless. My Friend is some good stuff. Definitely one of the better versions I've heard. Tasty Mike solo early in YEM. A little Trey rage before the BnD seg, which is killer as usual. Fairly interesting vocal jam, which is about what I expected with what happened vocally in other parts of the show. My Sweet One is fun. Big Ball Jam is Big Ball Jam. Love You is always a good Fish tune, one of my personal favorites. Not his best vacuum solo, but still entertaining as usual. They were begging for Possum in '93, what happened? It's a good one. Cookie Head Man. Staaatus! I generally like Golgi more as an opener than a closer/encore, but this one's perfectly appropriate.

Overall this show is classic '93. Nothing too stand-out or over-the-top, but there are some really nice moments that are perfect examples of why I love Phish so much. I'd like to give this 3.75 stars, so I'm just gonna go with 4 in hopes that others will balance it out.

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